What I've been reading

Death in the Spotlight
by Robin Stevens

" Hazel Wong and Daisy Wells are off to the Rue Theatre in London to face an entirely new challenge: acting. But the Detective Society is never far away from danger, and it's clear there's trouble afoot at the Rue. Jealousy, threats and horrible pranks quickly spiral out of control - and then a body is found."

This is a book aimed at young adults, so I am definitely a young adult. I thought it was so well written, and the plot was pitched at just the right level. Obviously it doesn't have all that much depth or complexity, but a pleasure to read.

The Inimitable Jeeves
by P. G. Wodehouse

narrated by B. J. Harrison

"This is a delightful collection of stories about Bertie and his amazing valet, Jeeves. Most of the stories involve Bertie's bumbling friend Bingo, who is constantly falling in love with different women and always needs Jeeves' advice to get out of his jams."

Of course I've read all of these before, but that doesn't make the experience any less enjoyable. The American narrator is no Jonathan Cecil, but he makes a good fist of it and seems to enjoy himself too.

Jude The Obscure
by Thomas Hardy

"Jude Fawley’s hopes of a university education are lost when he is trapped into marrying the earthy Arabella, who later abandons him. Moving to the town of Christminster where he finds work as a stonemason, Jude meets and falls in love with his cousin Sue Bridehead, a sensitive, freethinking ‘New Woman’."

This was Hardy's last book - he continued writing poetry, but gave up the novels. I can see why - his main protagonists both have separate unhappy marriages that end in dubious legality, come together and have children but are unable to countenance actually getting married again, and then it all ends unhappily for all of them including the children. The society of the day unsurprisingly didn't find this acceptable and presumably told him so. Apart from being quite a miserable story, all of the principal characters were so well described that they annoyed me intensely most of the time, except for Jude for whom I felt nothing but pity - he was weak but self-aware, and tried hard to make the best decisions given the mistakes he kept making. In case you're wondering, his title 'the Obscure', according to the Interwebs, means he wasn't notable - it means unimportant or anonymous.

Behind the Scenes at the Museum
by Kate Atkinson

narrated by Susan Jameson

"Ruby Lennox was born while her father, George, was in the Dog and Hare in Doncaster, telling a woman in an emerald dress and a D cup that he wasn't married. Bunty had never wanted to marry George, but there she was, stuck in a flat above the pet shop in an ancient street beneath York Minster."

There is no museum whatsoever in this family saga of the generations leading up to and including the life of the main protagonist. It's confusing to listen to because of the huge number of family members who appear and disappear as the narration shifts between present and past, and if you don't happen to remember which generation the person belongs to then you're always catching up. The main twist wasn't that much of a surprise. I suppose I'm coming to the conclusion that this book wasn't bad, just a bit of a disappointment.